(A/N: Happy St. Patrick's Day! Enjoy this new chapter!)


Chapter 2: A Raid! The Tin Tyrant, and Tin Plate Wapol

"Everyone, come here! This is bad!"

"Huh? What is it, Vivi?"

"It's Nami-san! She has a terrible fever!"

"I have a favor to ask of everyone. I know it's not my place to ask this as a passenger on your ship, but my homeland is in a terrible state now, so I'd like to hurry ahead! We can't waste even a single minute! So I want this ship to head for Alabasta at its fastest speed!"

"O course! That's what we promised!"

"You can count on us!"

"So let's find an island with a doctor on it right away! Let's cure Nami-san as quickly as possible, and then go to Alabasta! That's this ship's fastest speed, right?!"

"Yeah! We can't go any faster than that!"

Vivi and Sanji watched with worry, as Nami panted in bed. "She needs to see a doctor as quickly as possible. At this rate, Nami-san will..." Vivi trailed off, unable to finish.

On the deck, the rest of the crew were bundled in blankets, with Zoro on the crow's nest, and Luffy, Usopp, and Venus waiting for any reports. "Hey! See any doctors?!" Luffy shouted to Zoro.

"Do you expect him to, you idiot?" Usopp reprimanded.

Using binoculars, Zoro spotted something... off up ahead. But strangely, no island. "Hey, guys. Do you think... people can stand on the ocean?"

"Can people stand on the ocean?" Luffy asked.

"C'mon, Zoro! What kind of question is that?"

"Then... what's that?!"

"Huh?" Luffy turned around.

"What's that?" Usopp followed suit, and sure enough, there was a man in a guady jester suit, and a furry cloak, standing on the waves like they were solid!

"Huh?" Venus blinked, before the three rubbed their eyes, in case they were hallucinating. But when they looked again, he was still there. "Zoro, you were right!" She looked up at the swordsman. "There's a clown standing on the ocean!"

"I think he's a jester, Venus-chan," Usopp kindly corrected.

"Hi," The strange man gained their attention, "It sure is chilly today."

After a tense moment of silence, Luffy and Usopp turned to each other. "Yeah! It is chilly today!" The former agreed.

"Y-yeah! Chilly, chilly!" Usopp played along. "Today's very chilly!"

"Really?" Everyone flinched at the jester's response, and stared silently once again.

"Increase buoyancy!"

"Yes, sir!"

Out of nowhere, a huge, round vessel emerged from the waves under the jester, sending Usopp and Venus rolling back. "What is that?!" Luffy exclaimed, gripping on the railing. "A watermelon?!"

The sudden movements were noticed by Vivi downstairs. "Why are we shaking?!"

Sanji held the bed to keep it upright. "Hold the rudder! If anything happens to Nami-san, I'll gut you all!" He threatened, then suddenly changed his tone. "Except you, Venus-chan!"

Zoro stared at the round, steampunk abomination in front of them in shock. "Don't tell me this... is a ship?!" Just then, a giant prow lined with gears, the front resembling a hippo's head wearing a crown came out from the front, followed by a flag bearing a crown-wearing, tin-jawed Jolly Roger on the top.

"Crap! A p-pirate ship!" Usopp stammered.

"W-wow!" Luffy gawked.

"Just when we're in a hurry," Zoro griped.

Evil laughter rang out from the ship, amidst the coat-clad occupants. "Did our jumbo underwater ship, the Tin Tyrant, surprise you?!"

At that, Sanji began sprinting out in concern. "Vivi-chan! You're in charge here!"

"Okay!"

"Hey!" Sanji burst out. "What's going on?!" As no one answered, he lit and bummed a cigarette. "So? What's going on?"

"The ship's being attacked," Luffy replied calmly.

Sure enough, every one of them were surrounded by gun-wielding men. "Well, I figured as much, from the look of things."

As she kept her hands up, Venus shivered from the cold. She was regretting her choice of clothes right now; they didn't cover her nearly enough. "C-can I put a coat on real quick?"

"No!" She grunted when one of them jabbed her back with his gun.

The stout captain of the Tin Tyrant ate a piece of meat messily. He wore a fur skin with a hippo head, had dark blue hair, and had large, tin jaws. "Are you really pirates? You're strange. Is it just you five?" To Luffy's surprise, he bit off the blade of his sword, like it was a pepperoni stick! "I find it hard to believe, that a pirate group would only have five people." He finished off, by eating the handle of his weapon, as the Straw Hats watched in shock.

"What is that guy?!" Luffy squinted. "He even ate the knife!"

Usopp grimaced, as he kept his arms up like the witch. "Just watching hurts!"

"Well, no matter. I'll start, by asking this..." He chewed, "We want to go to the Drum Kingdom. Do you happen to have an Eternal Pose, or a Log Pose?"

"Nope," Sanji refused. "Never even heard of the place."

"Okay, you're done, right?!" Luffy glared. "So leave!"

"We're in a hurry!" Venus added. "We don't have time to mess with you!"

The man sighed. "Don't rush life like that. But if you have neither, then oh well. For now, I'll take your treasure, and this ship."

"What?!" Luffy sneered.

"No!" Venus protested.

"But first, I'm feeling a bit hungry!" To everyone's shock, his jaw opened at massive proportions, and bit off a good portion of the ship!

"Merry!" Venus exclaimed in horror.

"What is this guy?!" Usopp gawked.

"Don't eat our ship!" Luffy shouted.

"Hold it right there!" One of the men kept him back with his gun. "Wapol-sama is currently eating!"

"Shut up!" He punched them both down effortlessly.

"Damn that bastard! Fire!"

Zoro smirked, as they began shooting. "Should've done that from the very start." He whipped his blanket off.

"Oh?" Sanji smiled eagerly. "We can have at 'em?"

"Sounds good to me!" Venus beamed.

"No, wait!" Usopp climbed down the mast. "We can discuss this!"

From the Tin Tyrant, the jester watched with a man sporting a black afro, and a pom-pom mustache. "They started it themselves," The former remarked.

"The fools! They're in a hurry to die!"

"Gunfire?!" Vivi's eyes widened. "Karoo, watch Nami-san! I'll be right back!" She ran upstairs, as he quacked in agreement.

"Don't do anything you can't handle!" Sanji sent one gunman to the floor with one kick. "Reception!" Several more prepared to attack, but he took them all down with little effort.

More of them fell from the crow's nest, before Zoro ran down the mast. He sliced through all of them with lightning speed. "All bark, and no bite."

"Witchy-Witchy... Balls!" Venus managed a little more of a powerful attack, blowing her pursuers away.

"W-Wapol-sama! These guys're-!"

An angry Luffy punched his way over to Wapol, who was still chowing down. "Are you still eating it?!"

"Say, this ship doesn't taste half bad."

"Hey, you!" He turned around, and Luffy was running over, anger in his eyes.

"Fool! You're no match for Wapol-sama!"

"Time to get eaten by the power of the Munch Munch Fruit!"

To Usopp's horror, he was heading straight for Wapol's open maw. "Luffy!" On cue, he chomped down, but Luffy's arms were still outside, and stretching far out.

"W-what is this?!" Vivi glanced around at the commotion.

"Oh, hey Vivi-chan," Sanji greeted her casually, "Has something happened to Nami-san?"

"Eh?"

"What a hard-to-chew person!" Wapol griped.

"Why, you-!" Luffy sent his arms launching back, freeing himself, and sent Wapol soaring. "Go flying!"

The jester and afro man watched in shock, as their leader disappeared in the horizon. "Wapol-sama!" There was silence, as the crew smirked victoriously, and Vivi stared in awe. "Hey, this is bad! Wapol-sama was sent flying!"

"This is terrible!" Afro Man exclaimed. "Wapol-sama is unable to swim!"

"He will surely perish if we don't rescue him before he sinks!" The jester pointed to the Straw Hats. "This isn't over, you! We will make you pay for this!"

"Remember us! We'll get you for this!" The Tin Tyrant started drifting away.

"Please, remember us! Please!"

The crew watched them drift further and further away, until they were completely gone. "W-what was that just now?" Usopp asked. "They seemed to call him Wapol, but-"

"Doesn't matter," Sanji shrugged, "Don't worry about it. He's just a moron; that's the only possible explanation."

Vivi's mind started to wander. Something about him seemed familiar to her. "Have I seen him somewhere before?"

Later at evening, Luffy and Sanji rejoined Vivi downstairs to watch over Nami. "Are you sure she's not just hungry?" Luffy asked, before perking up. "If so, she should eat enough meat for 100 people! Eating meat makes sickness go away!"

"Look, you-"

"Come on!" Luffy cut Sanji off, and stretched his ears out. "Cheer up! Look! Look!" He tied his face up, in an attempt to look silly, but to no avail. "She's not laughing... not one bit." Nami continued panting. "Won't her fever go down if we dump water on her?"

"You idiot!" Vivi and Sanji kicked him to the door.

"This isn't good," Sanji remarked, as Luffy dropped to the floor, "The sun's about to set for the day, Vivi-chan."

"Yes, you're right," She agreed, "Let's drop anchor somewhere. We can't navigate at night without Nami-san's instructions."

"Yeah." Behind them, a picture frame fell from the wall, and on Luffy's face.

That night, Nami sat up in bed, felt her hot, sweating forehead, and was surprised to see most of the crew, Vivi and Karoo included, gathered together in the room, fast asleep. Vivi had her head in her arms on the bed, Zoro laid against Karoo's back, Luffy laid by the door, the picture frame stuck in his forehead by a corner, and Usopp was against the wall with one of Luffy's feet on his shoulder, and Venus in his lap over his blanket, arms crossed on her chest like always. "Oh!" Nami's eyes widened at the sniper's sudden voice. "You want my autograph that badly?!" He then slumped back down, to her relief.

Outside, Sanji was on night watch, so he sat in the crow's nest, covered with a blanket. "Whew, it's cold." He turned to look up at the sky. "Almost a full moon." That surely explained Venus' power surge earlier that day.

In the cabin, Nami smiled, as she watched everyone sleep around her, before she curled up, and drifted off herself.

After hours passed, Usopp's eyes blinked open after a blissful dream, so his mind wandered to earlier; while poor Merry was getting munched on, all he did was hide away from their adversaries. He couldn't let her suffer!

He went to stand up, but stopped at feeling a strange weight on his lap; he looked down, and smiled warmly at Venus' peacefully sleeping face. It was as if she didn't have a care in the world. From the angle, her head had tilted to the side, and was rested against his stomach. He carefully lifted her head up, shimmied his legs away, then tenderly laid her back down, using his bunched-up blanket as a makeshift pillow for her. She let out a big yawn; the urge to stroke her soft bangs out of her face was strong, but he pushed it away, settling for a simple, comforting head pat.

He walked upstairs to exit the cabin, and shivered at the cold breeze outside. In the bedroom shared by all the guys, he bundled up into warmer pants, and a brown furry coat, and headed back out.

In the crow's nest, Sanji blinked his groggy eyes open at the sound of a hammer pounding. "Brr!" He shivered. "Oh, crap, I fell asleep!" He looked down, and saw the sniper hammering wood in where Wapol stole a bite. "You're up early, Usopp!"

"I can't just sit around doing nothing! We gotta get out of this jam as quickly as possible!"

Sanji watched him for a moment. "Yeah, good point."

"Blehhh!" Luffy was trying his cheer-up method again, but like the first time, nothing came of it, as the coat-clad Zoro walked in. "C'mon, Nami! Look! This is weird. She won't smile! C'mon, smile, Nami!"

"What's goin' on, Luffy?" Zoro asked. When Luffy turned around, he jumped back at the goofy clown makeup on his face, as he stretched his lips. "Quit that! You're creepin' me out!"

"Really? Thanks!"

Meanwhile, Venus, now wearing a warm coat, pants, and boots, with her hair in low twintails, emerged from the bedroom she normally shared with Nami. She silently watched Usopp repair the damages; without a word, she grabbed a spare hammer.

"Huh?" He turned in surprise at the pounding noise, and saw her hammering a nail in the wood close by. "Oh, I got it-"

"You're not doing this on your own," Venus cut him off, "Merry is important to all of us."

He smiled, as she continued repairing. "Thanks, Venus-chan." She briefly returned the gesture through her work.

"Say, doesn't this area seem calm and cold?" Sanji remarked.

"Yeah," Usopp agreed through hammering, "Sudden, strange calms; I guess that's another thing that happens in the erratic Grand Line."

"That's not necessarily so," Vivi chimed in, "It's probably proof that an island is nearby."

"Really?" Venus perked up.

"Sanji-san! Could you look carefully out at the horizon?"

"Vivi-chan?" Sanji was befuddled, but did as requested.

"A winter island is nearby. I'm certain of it."

"Winter island?"

Just then, Usopp accidentally hammered one of his fingers over his glove instead of the nail, concerning Venus. "Oww!"

"Climatically, there are four basic types of islands in the Grand Line. Summer islands, spring islands, autumn islands, winter islands... and each one generally has four seasons of its own. In short, when on the Grand Line, there are at least 16 seasonal levels you must conquer, from summer island summer, to winter island winter. Of course, there are many exceptions and unknown climates."

"I get it," Usopp remarked after recovering, "The Grand Line has all these different islands one after the other, and that's why the seas between them have such unstable weather."

"That's right. Which is why stable weather means an island is nearby."

Sanji used binoculars to look. "Yeah... I see it!" Everyone looked in his direction at his announcement. "We found an island!"

"An island?!" Luffy, now makeup-free, beamed from downstairs. "Oh! An island! We found an island! Hey, Nami! Good for you! There's an island! You can get better!" He rambled. "There's an island! An island! Island! Island! Island! Island! Island!"

"Just go look," An annoyed Zoro ordered, "I got her covered."

Luffy ran outside, and grinned brightly. "An island! White! It's so white! It must be snow! A snow island, huh?!"

"Hey, Luffy! Just so you know, we're not here to have an adventure!" Sanji reminded him. "We're dropping by to find a doctor! We're leaving once we get Nami-san looked at!" The captain wasn't listening. "Hey! Hey, Luffy!"

"Snow is so nice and white!"

"It's no use. He doesn't hear me."

"H-h-hold on!" Usopp shivered, more out of nervousness than the cold. "Is this a good idea?! If there's snow, couldn't there be snow monsters too?! Besides, we're not even sure if people live there or not! Oh no! My chronic Can't-Go-to-the-Island disease!"

Venus patted his shoulder sympathetically, this time not falling for his lie. "The doctor can look at you too, after Nami."

'Snow! I love snow! It's white!' Luffy swooned in his mind.

"Guess I'll get us ready to land," Sanji decided.

As they drifted closer and closer, the crew stared in awe at the snowy landscape with towers reaching incredible heights. "All this snow!" Luffy beamed. "I'm so happy!"

"This is really somethin'," Sanji remarked, "What's with those mountains?"

"Say, Luffy," Usopp noticed he was still wearing his usual vest, shorts, and sandals, "Aren't you cold, dressed like that?"

"It's -10 C right now!" Vivi added. "That's when bears get ready to hibernate!"

"Huh? Oh." After a beat of silence, he began shivering. "So cold!"

"Took you long enough!" Usopp and Sanji shouted at him simultaneously.

At the prow, Vivi, Zoro, and Venus saw a small waterfall up ahead. "It's a waterfall of melted snow," Vivi pointed out, "We may be able to stop around here."

"So, who's going doctor-hunting?" Zoro asked around. "No, I guess people-hunting comes first."

Luffy raised his hand. "I'm going!"

Sanji balled his hand into a fist. "Me too!"

"Okay! Have fun!"

Just after Usopp's words, they were surrounded. "That's far enough, pirates!"

All around them were men pointing guns at them. "Hey, I found people," Luffy said.

"But... they don't seem too friendly," Usopp remarked.

Amidst the lineup, a man in a green coat emerged. "Attention, pirates! Leave this place at once! This instant!"

A wary Venus had her hands back up. "We come in peace!"

"We're not on another planet," Zoro rolled his eyes.

"We came to find a doctor!" Luffy informed.

"We have a sick person onboard!" Vivi added.

"We won't fall for that trick, you filthy pirates!"

"This is our island! We won't let any pirates land here!"

"Raise anchor, and leave now! Or else we'll blow your whole ship up!"

"They really hate our guts," Sanji lamented snarkily, "And we've just met too."

"Don't talk back!" Just then, a gunshot narrowly missed his foot.

"They're shooting!" Usopp exclaimed.

"You didn't just do that!" Vivi had to hold Sanji back from doing anything reckless. "Bastard!"

"Stop, Sanji-san!"

Another shot sent her falling, as the crew gaped in horror. "Vivi!"


(A/N: Uh oh, things have really gotten bad! You know the disclaimer.)